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Yemeni assassin hits York man with spam death threat
We'll spare you for $50k
A software engineer form York has been left nonplussed after a group of hired guns from the Yemen Arab Republic claimed to have been contracted to "terminate" him with extreme prejudice.
Charles Anderson told El Reg he received an email last week from a "Gladlord Mohammed" informing him that "i have being paid $200,000.00 in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employers".
However, Gladlord continued: "i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation."
Therefore, Gladlord had decided to pass up the contract on Charles - if the lucky developer handed over "$50,000.00 to the account i will provide for you".
Indeed, the gun for hire continued, once Charles had made a down payment and met with Gladlord, "i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court (if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later".
In the meantime, Charles is required to keep his mouth shut and not contact the FBI or the Police. The assassin reminds Charles that "I have your picture with me and other vital information. I was hired with my team from Yemen Arab Republic down here. So you don't need to ask any question. Deal/ No Deal?"
Despite the obvious air of menace around the email, our man has concluded this is clearly a scam, adding: "It's the first scam I've ever received that tried to intimidate me into handing over money, rather than just playing on my greed and stupidity. Is this the start of a trend, or have I just been lucky so far?"
Was our man really saying there was no one he could think of who'd want him rubbed out, waxed or otherwise taken care of? "I'm pretty sure I don't have any enemies who'd want me dead. More importantly, I doubt if I even know anyone who's got $200,000 to spare."
Not even an irate customer, El Reg suggested? "My direct contact with customers is very limited, so that would rule out most of the usual suspects," said Charles. "I haven't even annoyed the QA team much this year."
More details here. ®